Council Call for New Flood Management Authority for Scotland

The Highland Council is urging the Scottish Government to streamline the way it deals with flood management and prevention by giving responsibility to one of the existing authorities.

The Council believes flood legislation should be brought up to date and the assessment, management and powers for flood schemes placed under a single authority funded by the Scottish Government.

The current process of approval for flood schemes involves the Scottish Government, local councils, SEPA and Scottish Water through flood impact studies, environmental assessment, economic assessment, controlled activities regulations, planning consent and land agreements.

All this, says the Council, extends the time it takes to process schemes and increases the costs.

The views of the Council have been made in a written submission to the Scottish Government’s Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, who are holding an inquiry into flooding and flood management.

In its evidence, the Council states: “Approvals for flood schemes should be streamlined to shorten the time process for approval or rejection of projects. The approval authority should have power to over-rule spurious objections and send relevant objections through a hearing process which is able to make quick decisions.”

The authority would also have responsibility for flood management, including assessment, guidance, flood warning and promotion of flood projects.

The Council adds: “A single body with responsibility for flood management would require to have sufficient powers to deal effectively with objections, be fully resourced and have access to sufficient funding to implement flood prevention schemes.”

In its response the Council also says there should be full enforcement of the presumption against development in flood plains. 

Flood assessments which accompany planning applications should only be carried out by an accredited hydrological consulting engineer or members of an organisation accredited for hydrological work.    Lay out plans accompanying planning applications should be contoured to show drainage paths and low areas.